 Lanier Golf Club may soon be sold to a developer who plans to turn Forsyth County's oldest golf course into a massive, 772-unit retirement community.
Wellstone Communities LLC of Cumming has an option to buy the 37-year-old Lanier Golf Club, provided it is rezoned by Forsyth County for a mix of residential and commercial uses. Local residents oppose the move.
Win for Local Residents
The Forsyth County Planning Commission has recently voted 3-2 to recommend denial of Wellstone's request, which the opponents' attorney said would constitute "blob zoning, not spot zoning. "You're going to put this blob down so [the developer] can make millions of dollars," said Jonathan Weintraub, attorney for Save Lanier Golf Course LLC.
The planning commission's recommendation goes to the County Commission for a vote next month. All five county commissioners attended Tuesday night's meeting and looked out on an auditorium filled with opponents, many of whom dressed in green shirts and burst into applause at the planning commission's 3-2 vote.
Planning Commission member Mary Helen McGruder argued that the rezoning request should be approved, "even if it's not what we'd prefer to see or want to have next door."
She was booed by some in the crowd when she suggested that the planning commission's decision was based on "emotion" rather than rule of law.
"We're sending a message that we're a county where the rules are not important," McGruder said after the vote.
John Lowery, president and chief executive officer of Wellstone, took the vote in stride.
"It's just the first round," he told staff. "We're going to win this thing."
Neither side expected Tuesday's meeting to be the end.
The opponents, some of whom live in houses at the edge of the golf course, have been organized in their fight to block Wellstone. They have a web site, bankroll to cover attorney's fees and a willingness to go to court, if need be. They filed a lawsuit over the zoning last year. The suit was thrown out, not on its merits, but on grounds that it was premature.
At Tuesday's hearing, the two sides debated the project's potential impact on land values and traffic along Buford Dam.
Glynn Groszmann, an engineer hired by the opposition, told the planning commission that the Wellstone's plan will disturb a sizable amount of streams and could not be permitted under state regulations and the federal Clean Water Act.
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